


Not Kidding

by babbley



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 04:37:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14762732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babbley/pseuds/babbley
Summary: It's been weeks since Annabeth found out, and nobody has told Grover. Today is the last chance to tell her friend exactly what has been going on at Camp.





	Not Kidding

Annabeth had been avoiding this moment for weeks. Every time she stalked through the forest at Camp Half-Blood during capture the flag, or read the mortal newspaper the guilt in her chest sank deeper and deeper. It's tendrils dragging her down. The coin in her pocket felt heavier every day.   
This couldn’t go on any longer. Annabeth had to let him know what was going on.

The girl’s washroom in the Artemis cabin was in disrepair, and until the Haphestus cabin came to fix it nobody would go inside. Usually it didn’t matter though, because the Huntresses didn’t come to camp unless it was an absolute emergency. When Thalia came alone she would simply sleep in the Zeus cabin to keep Jason company, which was kind since Annabeth knew that place upset her.  
Taking a deep breath, Annabeth flushed the toilet in front of her. Water sprayed into the air and created a thick mist. It was so broken that unless she physically stopped it, the mist would continue forever. She took the coin out of the pocket, it had sat there as long as the weight had been sitting in her chest. Biting her lip, she tossed it into the faint rainbow.

“Annabeth! ” Grover beamed on the other side of the IM, “it’s been so long! How are things at camp? Any news on Percy?”

“Yeah, things are good,” said Annabeth. She wouldn’t try to appear as confident as she did with Piper or Leo, but still faked a small smile. The part of her that would normally be happy to hear from him was gone. 

“Here too,” he went on, “we’ve got satyrs working on an irrigation system which would make a hellhound roll over—well, other than Mrs O’Leary. This drought has been wild though. Sometimes I’d rather be back with you guys and Juniper. Gods, she’ll turn me into a fur coat next time I see her.” Annabeth felt selfish, she didn’t really care about what was going on in California, at least not right now. The longer they chatted the more the feeling in her chest would get bigger. It was now or never.

“Grover it’s actually serious here,” she stopped him. 

Grover’s expression fell and his brown eyes softened like a lamb, “what’s wrong?” 

“We’ve found Percy.”

Grover swallowed, “is he, you know, in one piece?”

“Yeah, we think so.” 

“What do you mean? Where is he?” Grover asked hesitantly, he knew Percy had a flair for the dramatic and it wouldn’t be somewhere fun like normal summer camp.

“At the Roman Demigod camp. It should be okay though—we don’t think they’d harm him.” Annabeth tried to sound reassuring.

Grover nodded, “when are we leaving? I can get Joey, our local rep, to take over for a while. I can be back in 7 days if you need me to, promise.” He was counting on his hairy fingers. 

“We’re leaving tomorrow morning,” Annabeth said quietly. She knew this would hurt her friend. 

“Tomorrow morning? Gods Annabeth! Did Rachel give you any heads up?” he sighed, seeming to lighten up.

“Weeks ago,” she whispered, looking at her feet. 

“Why did nobody tell me?” Grover asked, his face pleading for an answer, “I thought we were best friends. The best team.”

“Grover, I’m sorry,” Annabeth felt her eyes prickle, “I wanted to tell you right away but the plans we made are so big. They’re so calculated. I didn’t think we’d need another satyr,” she tried to say.  
But Grover stopped her, “Another satyr? Am I your second choice now? I’m your best friend. I’m Percy’s best friend. If any satyr can hold his own on the battlefield it’s me and you know it. Or I could have done anything else.” Grover’s small goatee began to quiver, “You know I’m not a dead weight.”

“I’m sorry,” Annabeth looked at him. His horns had grown since the last time they spoke. He’d been working out too, his weak arms had some muscle definition she hadn’t seen before. 

“No,” he shook his head, “you’re not.”

As the pesky pickle in Annabeth’s eyes began to turn into tears, someone shouted through the bathroom door. It was Leo and Coach Hedge. She blinked them away quickly.

“Chase! Are you in here? We’ve been searching for you all morning!” Coach Hedge hollered, “you’ve got to get back to the ship. Your troops need direction!” 

Annabeth turned from the IM to look at them. Hedge snorted and Leo was playing with some gears, whirring them around in his fingers.

“Someone’s got his goat,” Leo chimed in, dodging when Coach Hedge tried to push him, “but seriously, the team needs you. We’re going over battle strategy.”

From behind her, Annabeth heard Grover sigh. Annabeth shushed the two and they turned around, bickering as they left. Annabeth looked back at Grover.

“Either way it’s the wrong goat,” said Grover with one last look. It was a mixture of anger and pleading, his eyes were narrowed but his mouth pouting, a look Annabeth had not seen on him before. Without another word, he waved his arms and the IM finished. 

Annabeth was alone in the bathroom.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. It's been years since I wrote any fanfiction but today I started to wonder how the conversation between Grover and Annabeth could have gone. Grover is a nice guy, so realistically I think he would have been happy and ecstatic that they were finding Percy, but part of me also knows that the insecure guy we met in book one--before Pan or Juniper.... well, he would have been hurt.


End file.
